“Isn’t he clever to think of a thing like that? He ought to have been a student. Now my head would never have been any good for anything of that sort. He wanted, indeed, to have the names both begin and end with A, but that wouldn’t do with the boys, so he had to give that up. But then he hasn’t had any book-learning either.”
“Oh, that’s too bad, mother! I didn’t give it up. I’d made up a name for the first boy that had A at the end too; but then the priest and the clerk objected, and I had to let it go. They objected to Dozena Endina too, but I put my foot down; for I can be angry if I’m irritated too long. I’ve always liked to have some connection and meaning in everything; and it’s not a bad idea to have something that those who look deeper can find out. Now, have you noticed anything special about two of these names?”
“No,” answered Lasse hesitatingly, “I don’t know that I have. But I haven’t got a head for that sort of thing either.”
“Well, look here! Anna and Otto are exactly the same, whether you read them forward or backward—exactly the same. I’ll just show you.” He took down a child’s slate that was hanging on the wall with a stump of slate-pencil, and began laboriously to write the names. “Now, look at this, brother!”
“I can’t read,” said Lasse, shaking his head hopelessly. “Does it really give the same both ways? The deuce! That is remarkable!” He could not get over his astonishment.
“But now comes something that’s still more remarkable,” said Kalle, looking over the top of the slate at his brother with the gaze of a thinker surveying the universe. “Otto, which can be read from both ends, means, of course, eight; but if I draw the figure 8, it can be turned upside down, and still be the same. Look here!” He wrote the figure eight.
Lasse turned the slate up and down, and peered at it.
“Yes, upon my word, it is the same! Just look here, Pelle! It’s like the cat that always comes down upon its feet, no matter how you drop it. Lord bless my soul! how nice it must be to be able to spell! How did you learn it, brother?”
“Oh,” said Kalle, in a tone of superiority. “I’ve sat and looked on a little when mother’s been teaching the children their ABC. It’s nothing at all if your upper story’s all right.”
“Pelle’ll be going to school soon,” said Lasse reflectively. “And then perhaps I could—for it would be nice. But I don’t suppose I’ve got the head for it, do you? No, I’m sure I haven’t got the head for it,” he repeated in quite a despairing tone.